Eating More Salt May Not Cause Hypertension: Study

Sprinkle more salt on your food, advises new research.

Recent clinical studies confirmed majority of Americans and British consume too much salt, which is  linked to deaths caused by heart diseases, stroke and hypertension. A current research involving over 100,000 participants holds adding more salt to everyday diet has no impact on blood pressure readings unless people are aged over 60. The study used data of past researches and records on cardiovascular disease related deaths.

The findings revealed those who daily ate about 3,000 to 6,000 milligrams of salt were still safe from the risk of developing high blood pressure and heart diseases. In fact, these conditions occurred among those whose daily salt consumption was above or below these levels. Although the recent guidelines by the American Heart Association suggests a person's everyday sodium intake must be between 1,500 to 2,300 milligrams, less than 4 percent of the population in 18 countries adhered to  these recommendations.

The experts fear health implications of following a low sodium diet that include low blood pressure and heart conditions. They urge people to limit intake of too much sugar, fat and calories to cut the odds of premature death and cardiovascular problems. 

 "There is no question that very large amounts of salt, especially if you are not eating potassium concomitantly, will drive blood pressure up. High blood pressure is associated with cardiovascular disease, but the correlation is strongest in people with high blood pressure and people who are older," said Suzanne Oparil, a cardiologist at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, reports the NBC News.

However, the results do not confirm a cause-and-effect relationship and the authors believe pre-existing medical conditions also play a key role in ailments linked with low sodium diet and low blood pressure.
"We don't know the diet the subjects who gave a urine specimen were eating and for how long they ate it after.It was one point in time, and the researchers followed them for 3.7 years and try to draw a relationship between one-spot urine and events that occurred over the next 3.7 years," added Elliot Antman, president of the American Heart Association, reports the NBC News.

More information is available online in the New England Journal of Medicine.